About the Eclipse Stereo Power Amplifier
The first thing that hits you about this amplifier is its looks. The striking design is iconic, beautiful, amazingly practical and a significant element of the amp's performace too. By making the whole machine into it's own integral 'multi-shelf' stand gives significant separation of the amplifiers systems and forms an overal coherent anti-microphonic structure. No need to doubt the performance of any third party racks here. The electronics are separated into four heavily shielded modules; an audio power module, an audio drive module, an inductor module and a power supply module. And the 'wings' contain the very large non-resonant heatsinks that Halcro use to achieve cooling without the need for fans.
The electronics are of course solid state, with proprietary circuit designs and component choices that Halcro keep very close to their chest. Reports are that Halcro spent two years working to improve the linearity and noise floor of the design but also carried out intensive listening sessions to ensure they weren't sacrificing musicality in the process. The result is in our opinion, a unique blend of brilliant measured results and a mind boggling level of musicality. Any prospective customer should read recent reviews from the established press to get a sence of the real significance of this amplifier – see links to some of the most important ones: HiFi News, Australian hi-fi,
Tech Insight
One of our main beliefs at Winters Audio is that anti-microphony structures and EMI/RFI management should always be significant considerations in any effective hifi product. So with the Halcro amplifiers, as well as the serious casework implementation, a multi-stage, common mode, EMI filtering strategy is present on the power supplies.
on the mains input
between the amplifier and power supply
Furthermore, Halcro has designed-in some very effective high frequency filtering on all inputs, and particularly importantly, the outputs. Remember that the biggest pickup antennas in a system are the speaker cables and the speakers themselves (feeding radio signals back into the whole of the system through the amplifier). The filtering is totally transparent right through the audio band, but gently rolls in at much higher frequencies and is certainly a significant contribution to the sound quality on offer. You will see a common trait through all the reviews written about this amplifier, talking about the low noise floor and ability of the smallest sounds to emerge out of an astonishingly quiet background. And how this feature of the Halcro sound is markedly better than any other amplifers that reviewers have ever heard.
Specifications
Power
Power output into 4 ohms resistive > 350 W
Power output into 8 ohms resistive > 180 W
(Both channels driven, measured at 1kHz)
Distortion
At full power output, all harmonic distortion orders:
THD <-120 dB (<1000 parts per billion) up to 20 kHz (100 kHz B.W.) at 350 W into 4 ohms.
THD @ 1 kHz <-134 dB (<200 parts per billion).
For sum of 19 and 20 kHz tones, each delivering 87.5 W into 4 ohms = peak power 350 W, resulting intermodulation products each <-120 dB relative to output.
SMPTE-IM intermodulation products are each <-120 dB relative to output.
Inputs
There are three input modes:
an unbalanced voltage mode input with an impedance of 22 kOhms
a balanced voltage mode input with an impedance of 22 kOhms + 22 kOhms
a minimal path voltage mode with an input impedance of 660 Ohms
The voltage gain of the balanced and unbalanced inputs is 30 V/V and for the minimal path mode is 15 V/V.
Noise
The equivalent input noise at the input is 5 nV/sqrt(Hz) for the voltage modes and 6 pA/sqrt(Hz) for the current mode.
Frequency Response
3Hz – 215kHz: -3db @ 1W
7Hz – 90kHz: -1dB @ 1W
Dimensions
Weight, 62kg
Height, 79cm
Width, 40cm
Depth, 40 cm
Shipping weight, 85 kg
Matching & Setup
The first significant setup consideration with the Eclipse Stereo amplifier is this – it's got its own integral stand. So any setup is going to be the source and preamplifier components on a rack, and then the Eclipse stood on it's own by the side of the rack or in another part of the room (you wouldn't put it behind the rack because it looks too damn good). So cabling is going to be different as you're going to need longer interconnects to feed the amp, and a different layout of speaker cables. The amp itself has great feet of course so you simply have to ensure its sat securely and levelled and your good to go.
As a pretty powerful solid-state amp, speaker matching isn't a problem, pushing plenty of current into a 4 Ohm load. And because of the way it performs it seems to really grip a speaker, adding a level of transparency and reality through the speaker/amp combo that instantly seems to sweep away any character traits that might have been there before.
